The Damascus Declaration

Source: Getty

Syria Resources

March 01, 2012

Summary: The Damascus Declaration (DD) is a secular umbrella opposition coalition named after a statement drafted in 2005 by numerous opposition groups and individuals demanding a multiparty democracy in Syria. It calls for a gradual and peaceful transition to democracy and the equality of all citizens in a secular and sovereign Syria.

The Damascus Declaration (DD) is a secular umbrella opposition coalition named after a statement drafted in 2005 by numerous opposition groups and individuals demanding a multiparty democracy in Syria. It calls for a gradual and peaceful transition to democracy and the equality of all citizens in a secular and sovereign Syria.

The declaration’s membership has changed over time as the coalition has faced leadership contests and crises of unity throughout its existence, particularly in the 2007–2009 period. The coalition, in its current configuration, was a founding member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), although several of the DD’s members are part of the National Coordination Body and others maintain independent positions.

Current Major Figures

Samir Nashar: member of the Executive Committee of the Syrian National Council, president of the Secretariat General of the DD, and president of the National Liberal Alliance, a small and marginal liberal partyAnas al-Abdeh: president of the Secretariat General of the DD outside Syria, member of the General Secretariat of the Syrian National Council, and president of the Movement for Justice and Development, a small, liberal, London-based Sunni Islamist groupRiad al-Turk: former leader of the Syrian Democratic People’s Party — formerly known as the Syrian Communist Party (Political Bureau) — who helped launch the DD in 2005Giath Uyoun al-Soud: president of the Syrian Democratic People’s PartyWalid al-Bunni: doctor, imprisoned in multiple times since 2001; joined the SNC’s General Secretariat in 2011 but later resignedAbdul Hamid al-Atassi: Paris-based spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic People’s PartyAbdulrazak Eid: head of the National Council of the DD in exile and active in the establishment of the Antalya and Istanbul meetings prior to the formation of the Syrian National Council

Former Major Figures

Michel Kilo: prominent Marxist dissident from the Damascus Spring era, helped launch the DD in 2005, active in the 2011–2012 uprising including in the formation of the National Coordination Body, however formed the separate Syrian Democratic Platform in February 2012Hassan Abdul Azim: leader of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change and president of the Democratic Arab Socialist UnionHaytham Manna: founder of the Arab Commission for Human Rights and spokesperson in exile for the National Coordination Body for Democratic ChangeRiad Seif: a former parliamentarian who broke with the regime to become a leading figure in the Damascus Spring of 2000 and then a signatory of the DD in 2005, but left during the leadership battles of 2007–2009Dr. Fida al-Hourani: Arab nationalist intellectual and daughter of Akram al-Hourani, founder of the Arab Socialist Movement; helped launch the DD in 2005, imprisoned in 2008 alongside eleven other DD leadersSheikh Jawdat Said: pacifist Sunni theologian who was imprisoned in 2008 and released in early 2011Nawaf al-Bashir: tribal leader from Deir Ez-Zor, member of the DD until 2009, leader of the former Future Movement but now heads the Liberation and Construction Bloc

Background

The Damascus Declaration was signed on October 16, 2005, as an attempt to unite the fractured Syrian opposition. The initiative was spurred on by popular discontent over Syria’s involvement in Lebanon and its conflict with the United States over Iraq and Palestine. Signatories included historical opposition movements such as the National Democratic Rally and the Muslim Brotherhood, minority groups such as Kurdish and Assyrian parties, and prominent dissidents from the Damascus Spring movement such as Michel Kilo and Riad Seif. However, it proved difficult to reconcile the demands of the leftist and secular parties with those of the Islamists, and divisions continued to plague the coalition despite the “unity statement” of January 2006.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s alienation from the Damascus Declaration began when it joined the National Salvation Front of former vice president, Abdul Halim Khaddam, following his defection in 2006. The DD leadership elections of December 2007 provoked severe conflict between the “traditional opposition” of leftist and nationalist factions under Hassan Abdul Azim and Haytham Manna on one side, and the “new opposition” represented by the Islamist- and Damascus Spring–era factions of Riad al-Turk and Riad Seif. Several weeks later, twelve of the DD’s founding members, including Riad Seif and Michel Kilo, were arrested by the authorities and imprisoned. The leadership battles paralyzed the coalition, with some factions drifting into new alliances and others into exile. In 2009 the DD announced a new leadership in exile, but it retained few members in Syria and underrepresented the historical opposition.

A majority of the DD’s signatories participated in the Antalya and Istanbul conferences that led to the formation of the Syrian National Council in October 2011. By this point the DD appeared to be dominated by Riad al-Turk’s Syrian Democratic People’s Party and Anas al-Abdeh’s Movement for Justice and Development.

The Kurdish and Assyrian parties had been marginalized during the leadership battles of 2007–2009 and have asserted themselves more independently since the beginning of the uprising. The majority of the Kurdish parties have left the DD in order to work with the Kurdish National Council, and the Assyrian Democratic Organization has its own quota of seats in the Syrian National Council. The Arab Socialist Movement and Arab Revolutionary Workers Party remain nominal members of the DD and the National Democratic Assembly, but they have joined neither the Syrian National Council nor the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change.